Florida

Florida's constitution of 1968 allows citizens to amend the constitution by initiative. Statutory initiatives and “veto” referendums are not allowed. The first initiative to go to the voters and the first to be approved was Amendment 1 in 1976, sponsored by Governor Ruben Askew, a “sunshine law” that requires public disclosure of financial interests and campaign finances of candidates for office.

Through 2017, a total of 36 initiatives have gone to a vote, with 78 percent approved. Early initiatives concerned gambling and the state lottery. More recent initiatives have concerned land use regulation, redistricting, and medical marijuana.

The state’s elected officials have not always been comfortable with the initiative process, and have repeatedly tried to curtail citizen lawmaking. In response to passage of the first initiative in 1976, the legislature approved bills that banned the collection of signatures at polling places and imposed a 10-cent-per-signature "verification fee" on submitted petitions. After environmentalists gained approval in 2000 for an initiative creating of a high-speed rail system, and animal right activists secured passed in 2002 of an amendment guaranteeing minimum living space for pregnant pigs, the legislature placed Amendment 3 on the ballot raising the approval requirements to 60 percent for initiated constitutional amendments. With the passage of Amendment 3, Florida became one of only two states in the nation to require a supermajority for constitutional amendments, and the only initiative state with such a requirement. Since then, three initiatives have received majority support, but failed to reach the 60 percent threshold; they would have required voter approval of new land use plans, legalized medical marijuana, and established a right for consumers to generate solar energy on their own property.